Okay so I'm about to discuss my experience with Quicken, Microsoft Money, and Excel. So last month right before Christmas holidays I attempted to use Quicken and Microsoft Money. I hated both systems. I couldn't reconcile anything, pretty much everything attempted to get downloaded off of website, but they wouldn't reconcile.
How so? Well the BofA checking would only go back to May, and I just had to pretend it started off with a budget after a set date. Then when I attempted to put in categories for each entry, it worked mostly, until it came to CC payments. Then when I called it a CC payment it wouldn't reconcile with the CC statement. I downloaded the statement, but it would instead show 2 payments instead of reconciling the two accounts. This occurred in both Quicken and Money.
Then I also tried to track our portfolio, however it wouldn't go back far enough to track the buy dates for some stocks. It also wouldn't track all the entries for the 401k purchases.
Another thing is I couldn't reconcile the paychecks breakdown. It was impossible to setup the paychecks because it was variable at the end of the year. So again I found myself stuck using the computer program. I guess I'm not very computer adept.
As far as excel, I have a simple spreadsheet showing due dates of bills and costs. It isn't fancy, and when I pay the bill, I input the confirmation code. Simple? Yes, does it help budgeting? No, but it makes sure I pay all my bills on time.
I may try youneedabudget or an excel spreadsheet. I'll post when I figure it out. What are other's experiences with Quicken/Money.
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4 comments:
I have been working with you need a budget for a short while, and I seem to be able to navigate around it fairly well.
I've tracked everything in Quicken since Jan 1, 1997. Works great for me. MS Money isn't an option since I use a Mac.
you can also use http://docs.google.com/ (or similar service) and have your spreadsheet online
it's not working so well current update, I'm finding money and quicken both very difficult. No idea why it's so hard to reconcile payments to everything.
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